Icc

As the Maryland Transportation Authority's revenues have declined this year, its costs for construction of the Intercounty Connector have risen to the point where the project now accounts for 53 percent of the agency's budget - forcing delays in other road maintenance projects and making a substantial increase in tolls at some facilities a near certainty after the 2010 gubernatorial election. According to the state Department of Legislative Services, the independent toll authority is facing the same type of recession-related squeeze that has forced the Maryland Department of Transportation to defer about $2.2 billion in projects.

As the Maryland Transportation Authority's revenues have declined this year, its costs for construction of the Intercounty Connector have risen to the point where the project now accounts for 53 percent of the agency's budget - forcing delays in other road maintenance projects and making a substantial increase in tolls at some facilities a near certainty after the 2010 gubernatorial election. According to the state Department of Legislative Services, the independent toll authority is facing the same type of recession-related squeeze that has forced the Maryland Department of Transportation to defer about $2.2 billion in projects.

There wasn't much public in the public hearing held by the Maryland Transportation Authority last week in Beltsville on its proposed tolls on the just-around-the-corner Intercounty Connector. A couple of dozen folks who might actually be described as public - not media, not state officials or contractors - took seats in the sparsely occupied cafeteria at High Point High School. But only a handful actually approached the microphone to share their views with the members of the authority's board.

The Maryland Transportation Authority will hold the first of two public hearings on its toll plan for the Intercounty Connector from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday in Beltsville. The hearing at High Point High School, 3601 Powder Mill Road (Route 212), is the closer to Baltimore of the two hearings. The other will be held during the same hours Thursday at Shady Grove Middle School, 8100 Midcounty Highway in Gaithersburg. Under the plan, motorists driving passenger vehicles could be charged as much as 35 cents a mile during peak driving times and up to 30 cents a mile for off-peak trips.

In 2005, foes of the Intercounty Connector raised a little hell about the Ehrlich administration's plans to build the long-delayed highway as a toll road - estimating that a daily end-to-end commuter might face up to $1,500 a year in tolls. "If you're earning $40,000 a year and taking home $30,000 a year, that's 5 percent of your take-home pay," Montgomery County Councilman Phil Andrews said at the time. The public yawned. Proponents accused opponents of using scare tactics. The $2.6 billion project went ahead.

Motorists and their advocates in Maryland say those who drive will decide if the tolls on the new Intercounty Connector are acceptable by using - or not using - the new roadway. The Maryland Transportation Authority proposed Wednesday that drivers using the ICC, which will link Interstate 270 in Montgomery County with Interstate 95-U.S. 1 in Prince George's County, pay 35 cents a mile during peak hours for cars and up to $2.63 per mile for the largest trucks. Some commuters may pay the toll in an attempt to cut travel time, but others, like Matt Buerhaus, think the state is asking too much, considering all the other Maryland taxes and the weak economy that has reduced many people's incomes.

Maryland commuters - particularly those with thoughts of traveling between I-95 in Laurel and Montgomery County's I-270 technology corridor - received a bit of sticker shock this week. Tolls on the Intercounty Connector could top $6.15 for a one-way trip in peak hours. No Maryland road, bridge or tunnel has ever charged anything approaching that. The most expensive facility currently operated by the Maryland Transportation Authority is the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway, the 48-mile portion of I-95 north of Baltimore where cars face a $5 toll at the Tydings Memorial Bridge, but that's only assessed on northbound travelers; the southbound trip is free.

The Maryland Transportation Authority has unveiled a toll plan for the Intercounty Connector under which passenger vehicles would pay as much as 35 cents a mile for travel on the highway when its first phase opens next year. The authority also announced a series of public hearings next month to gather comments on the plan. Since the ICC's revival under the administration of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the state has planned to set tolls for the highway at levels that would keep it free of congestion by setting prices that would detour a certain amount of the east-west traffic onto free local roads.

Night travel between Baltimore and Washington will be slowed over the next few months as work crews close lanes, shift traffic patterns and erect structural steel to build the interchange linking Interstate 95 to the new Intercounty Connector. The closings, which began this week, mark the first significant impact that the $2.5 billion ICC project will have on Baltimore-area travelers. Previously, most of the construction had been along the east-west path of the toll road, which will connect U.S. 1 with Interstate 270 in Montgomery County.